Best Trip Ever!!

Water Temperature 25-26C/77-78F

The success of a trip lies as much on the attitude from the guests as it does on the quality of the divers, and we can confidently say we hit high on both accounts. Our mix of guests included four NAI’A enthusiast return guests (Andy, Tony, Martin and Paul), some very seasoned divers (Jim, Renee, Larry, Julius and Tina), the younger generation (Suzanne T, Marco, Mark, Simon, Claire and Suzanne B) and the most enthusiastic diver we’ve ever had: Gug. Caring nothing about the damage to his credibility, he always proclaimed after any dive: Best dive of my life! Not hard to believe when he and Suzanne came to Fiji looking for our specialty: soft corals and anthias. Ready yourself, for the pictures on this diary have turned out stupendous! Nothing like great photo enthusiasts and a fabulous professional on board!

Our first leg of the trip was delayed by some technical issues and then we encountered some very rough winds, which delayed our first dives and allowed for only 2 immersions that first day. Our guests were very understanding, and the dive gods rewarded them with two incredible dives at Howard’s Diner and Mellow Yellow. The visibility wasn’t the best, but the current was really mild, the soft corals were all open and the fish were everywhere. A few nudis, a leaf scorpionfish, a cloud of fusiliers. It was a great first day, and we said goodbye to the worst of the weather.

Photo by Gug: Soft corals and anthias

Photo by Martin: The hunting party

We moved to Wakaya and watched, for the 3rd trip in a row, manta courtship! This time it was Snoot, being courted by Geo and M467. Flapuccino also put on a show for us, Django and Nathan gave a private show to Andy and Claire, and the mantacam captured some great images. In total, we saw eleven mantas and the mantacam captured images of 4 mantas, 2 we didn’t see diving. But it wasn’t all about the flappy fish, as we also had glimpses of a hammerhead, saw leaf scorpionfish, a few turtles, orange-barred garden eels, a moray eel getting cleaned and a few reef sharks. The move to Makogai was smooth and Chief Simon represented us with great distinction on the village visit. We all enjoyed the tour and the mekes, but the little boy dancing outside copying the older kids may have been the highlight!

Photo by Martin: Fans and fish confetti

Photo by Martin: Flapuccino the flappy, flappy manta

Photo by the Mantacam: Shirley and Johnny

Photo by Mike: Andy and the sunset

We crossed over to Namena and the marine reserve welcomed us well, with a humpback sighting right next to NAI’A right after breakfast. Kansas was outstanding, between the soft corals and mantis shrimp sightings, as well as big tunas. We also saw numerous tunas (even 9 together!) and an eagle ray at Grand Central Station and several grey reef sharks and a few hammerheads at both GCS and Schoolhouse. Also at Schoolhouse, schools of rainbow runners, black and midnight snappers, pinjalos, bigeyes, barracudas, trevallies, oceanic and redtooth triggers, milkfish and bannerfish. Huge Spanish mackerels herded the barracudas towards the divers and a huge marbled stingray tempted us to drop way too deep. North save-a-tack did it again!

South save-a-tack wasn’t far behind, as we (Gug and Suzanne) also saw a huge marbled stingray there, as well as four eagle rays cruising at full speed. We also saw some reef sharks, a couple of playful octopuses, schooling surgeonfish and fusiliers, a couple of ribbon eels, orangutan crabs, leaf scorpionfish, golden mantis shrimps and several species of nudibranchs. On the best night dive of his life, Gug saw a turtle, a massive bluntend seahare and several decorated crabs. The Kava Party was lively, but brief, as these guests were very serious about their diving (everybody) and their sleep (Marco).

Photo by Gug: Suzanne and gorgonians

Photo by Claire: Bel and bommie

Photo by Simon: Trevallies

Photo by Martin: Bannerfish and barracudas!

Photo by Simon: Trevallies and grey reef shark

Photo by Martin: Barracudas

Photo by Mike (on Claire's phone): Kansas from below

Photo by Gug: Suzanne and the window at Kansas

Photo by Gug: Soft coral and Mike

We spent our next day at Vuya and UndeNAI’Able, cruising through astonishing hard and soft corals and surrounded by fish, all the while listening to the sound of humpback whales. It was hard not to stare into the blue as they sounded just so close! We didn’t see them, but we did see another great variety of nudibranchs, thousands of fusiliers, clouds of bluegreen chromis. The cuts at UndeNAI’Able Reef were a big hit with the younger generation, but also the bommies at the end. With this group, there just wasn’t really a bad day, or a bad dive! On the other best night dive of his life, Gug saw a huge pleurobranch and a lion’s paw sea cucumber covered in scale worms. He also showed Semi a slipper lobster larvae!

Photo by Gug: Soft corals and anthias

Photo by Gug: Soft corals and anthias

The last day managed to stand out in a big way. Right after a stunning dive at E6’s Cathedral, our guests got lucky with two humpback whales, mom and calf. A magnificent jump with them got everyone extremely excited! The following dive at Mount Mutiny’s Rainbow Wall was another magnificent dive, full of color and saturated with absurd amounts of fusiliers. After that we finished strong with Vatu-i-ra’s Maytag and Coral Corner. Both dives certainly had more current than expected, but we enjoyed the fruits of all that commotion. Fish drama at its best. Our journey home was fantastic, and as new friends we enjoyed the best sunset of the best trip ever!

Photo by Martin: Hard corals

Photo by Martin: Rainbow wall

Photo by Gug: Anthias sprinkle

Our amazing group!